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Preventing Gang- and Drug-Related Witness Intimidation

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Preventing Gang- and Drug-Related Witness Intimidation

Many police officers and prosecutors have become increasingly frustrated by their inability to investigate and prosecute cases successfully when key witnesses refuse to provide critical evidence or to testify because they fear retaliation by the defendant or his family and friends. This problem is particularly acute, and apparently increasing, in gang- and drug-related criminal cases. Witnesses' refusal to cooperate with investigations and prosecutions should be a major concern: it adversely affects the justice system's functioning while simultaneously eroding public confidence in the government's ability to protect citizens. This report describes how several jurisdictions have carried out these victim/witness security strategies. It offers a blueprint for combining these discrete approaches into a comprehensive, structured program to protect witnesses and help ensure their cooperation with the justice system. Investigators and prosecutors can benefit by the approaches discussed here, which their colleagues have undertaken, to help ensure that offenders do not go unpunished and communities do not lose faith in the justice system.